Friday, July 10, 2015

Yes,
But: Germany's
finance minister admits that the IMF is right when it says the only
way forward will be to give Greece significant debt relief, but
insists that it is not possible to do so under European rules and
Germany is not about to let anyone change those rules.

Echo:
The leader of ISIS in Afghanistan has been killed. By drones.
Again.

Once
And For All:
Yes, the NSA has been listening to Angela Merkel's phone calls and
those of over 100 of her advisors and political rivals, and WikiLeaks
has published the transcripts. The NSA has been doing this for over
a decade, and not just to the German High Command. It likes to
pretend it just records “meta data”, but the records show they
scoop up every word spoken – and if you think it's only the rich
and famous... Prophets
and Profits:
ExxonMobil knew of, and made business decisions based on, the reality
of climate change as far back as 1981. Yet it continued
to fund climate change denial until at least 2008.

Hardly
Time: A court
in Naples has found former PM Silvio Berlusconi guilty of bribery,
but by the time a second court hears the case and all the appeals are
exhausted, the statute of limitations will have expired and
Berlusconi will have another conviction to frame and hang on his
office wall.

Perception:
Now that 75% of Chinese stocks are not trading, major stockholders
have been forbidden to sell their stocks and the market has fallen
well over 35%, there is fear that the market “may
be heading for a crash”. Golly, y'think?

Tea
Leaf: The
internet's bullish
bloggers have become
curiously quiet of late.

Be
Afraid: The
Pentagon is warning that by 2023 the Chinese will have “42,000
unmanned military planes.” By
which they mean drones. The only way for us to be safe is to buy
43,000. Or more.

Sundown:
Cops in NM are outraged that they can no longer simply stop people
and take their money without even having to make up a reason.
Maybe they'll go back to robbing drug dealers.

Bumbled
Bees:
Scientists agree that the native bumblebee population is fast
declining, but point to climate
change not pesticides
as the culprit. The temperature range for the bumblebee has moved
200 miles northward, but the bees have only moved their range about 5
miles. Rather than migrate and adapt, they are simply dying out. An
allegory? Rose
Is Rose: The US
Attorney General has ruled that, in the light of the Supreme Court's
recent decision, married couples – all of them – will get federal
marriage benefits.

Our Motto

Keep fightin' for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't you forget to have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin' ass and celebratin' the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was.